Academy’s Undercover Professor-Novel - Chapter 106

ACADEMY’S UNDERCOVER PROFESSOR

[Translator – Alice]

[Proofreader – ilafy]

Chapter 106 – Action Plan (2)

“Leader, what on earth sort of method are you talking about?”

Violeta, who was listening quietly, couldn’t hold back her curiosity and asked.

Instead of giving a direct answer, Ludger called Hans’s name.

“Hans.”

“Yes.”

“Is it possible to check on the structure of the underground storage room that can be monitored in real time through this artifact?”

“Is the blueprint here not enough?”

“I mean the things that are not shown in the blueprint. I’m asking for the layout or detailed structure of the items in the interior. Is that possible?”

“It’s possible.”

Hans pointed his finger at the blueprint of the Kunst auction house.

“The underground storage room at the Kunst auction house has only one passage for people to come and go, which is this elevator, but that’s only applicable for the path in which ‘people’ can go through.”

On one side of the blueprint that Hans pointed at, they could see a small passage connecting the surface and the underground.

However, it was so small that it could hardly be seen as a space through which a person could pass.

Sheridan, who noticed what kind of construction it was, spoke.

“It’s a vent, huh.”

“You’re right. Because underground storage rooms need to store valuable items, they basically have to maintain the temperature, humidity, and cleanliness. Magic has its limits, you know. Because of that, the air has to circulate periodically, and there are bound to be multiple vents through which the air passes.”

“But how do we get there? Are you going to go in by yourself?”

“I’m not going there directly. Do you think I was crazy enough to contort my body and get into that cramped hole?”

“Didn’t you?”

“Nope. I have a friend to go there instead of me.”

“Friend?”

Sheridan glanced around swiftly.

No matter where she looked, none of the members gathered there would be able to enter that narrow hole.

Hans sighed at Sheridan’s immature appearance and whistled.

Squeak.

At that moment, there was a small cry in one corner of the room.

In the place where everyone’s gazes headed to, there was a small mouse.

The mouse scurried along fast in an instant and stopped beside Hans.

As Hans leaned down and stretched out his hand, the mouse climbed up his hand and settled on his shoulder.

“This friend will check it for us.”

“…Rat? Did you call that rat your friend just now? I’m sorry, Hans. I’ve been bullying you too much lately, right?”

“I-I’m sorry, Mr. Hans. I didn’t know you have received so much st-stress…”

“No, why are you guys looking at me like that?!”

Hans frowned at the attitude of Sheridan and Bellaruna.

“It’s not like that, so don’t be uselessly worried. As you already know, my physical type is a little special, right?”

“It’s not a little, though?”

“…Anyway! I gain strength by borrowing beast factors, but in fact, I also have another way of utilizing my abilities—that’s communicating with these babies.”

“Communication? With animals?”

As Hans seemingly thought that it was more comfortable to show it directly instead of only talking about it, he carefully placed the rat on his shoulder to the table.

Then he lifted his finger and pointed to the rat.

“Spin.”

The rat around in that spot.

“Stop.”

When he told the rat to stop, it stopped right away.

“Bang.”

As he imitated the shape of a gun with his fingers and pretended to shoot, the rat slumped to the side.

—It pretended to be dead.

“Amazing.”

Pantos, who had been shutting his mouth silently until then, shed a word of admiration in a low tone.

For him, who was a beastperson, the fact that there was a human being who could communicate with animals made him feel like he was seeing a whole new world.

“Oh. You can’t talk to animals, Mr. Pantos? You’re a beastperson, right?”

“Being a beastperson doesn’t mean I can communicate with animals. That’s only possible for a tribal shaman who has been trained within the tribe and dealt with the spirit of Mother Nature properly.”

Even a tribal shaman was only able to do simple communication.

There was no instance in his memory about a tribal shaman who gave such detailed instructions and implemented them with animals.

Hans was rather confused when Pantos the beastperson said that.

“Is… is that so? I just did it, though.”

In fact, Hans was able to gather information that others couldn’t gain access to because his commands to the rats to listen to news and convey the news to him played a bigger role than him doing the espionage work himself.

People thought that other beasts had low intelligence and were stupid, but they just couldn’t communicate with humans, there were actually a lot of pretty clever sides that they had.

Most of all, there were a lot of occasions when a beast’s senses were much better than a human’s.

“Ahem. Anyway, if we send a few more rats along with this friend, we’ll be able to check the details of the internal structure, but how are you going to do it?”

“I’m going to open up a few more possibilities.”

Ludger stroked his chin and turned his gaze to Sheridan.

“Sheridan.”

“What did you think when you saw the artifact that transmits videos in real time?”

“Hmm. Surely it’s fun stuff? When other crystal balls transmit sounds through mana wavelengths, it shows the surrounding landscape. The person who first made it used their brain a lot, but why?”

“If the conditions are sufficient, can you make something similar?”

“Something similar?”

“For example, applying the surrounding landscape directly to this display.”

“Display?”

Ah.

Ludger realized that there was no such proper noun in the world yet, so he immediately added more explanation.

“It refers to this thin and wide plate. I think that we could replicate a video recorded from another place onto.”

“Hee. Display, huh. I really like how it sounds. Anyway, what Your Honor means is that you want to know if I could make something that transmits onto a display, right?”

“Yes.”

“It’s possible. There’s in fact an object called a projector. I can make comparable stuff in a similar method, but I can’t guarantee the quality. Since time is a bit short, its duration may fall short as well.”

“I don’t mind. We won’t use it for a long time anyway.”

“But what should I do when I make it? Looking at its shape, it seems that this is an artifact with a crystal ball that records video with a separate display, but can I not make the display?”

“You don’t have to make a display.”

“Oh? Why on earth?”

When Sheridan asked while tilting her head, Ludger replied in a light tone.

“Because there’s one that has already been made.”

“Already made? …Ah.”

Sheridan and the other members who were listening to their conversation quietly noticed what Ludger was talking about.

Why Ludger wanted to check the structure of the interior of the storage room down to every little detail…

Why he wanted to make a video recorder to transmit videos to a display…

“Alex.”

“Oh, yeah?”

“You, hm. You’ll have to act in the middle.”

“Act? What kind of act?”

“I think the son of a noble family from the Southern Kingdom would be good. You don’t know how the world works, but you have a lot of money, and you have the personality of using your money lavishly. You’ll have to wear an outfit to match the role. Violeta.”

“Yes, Leader?”

“Can you make the garments worn by the Southern aristocrats for Alex? With a design that looks luxurious at first glance.”

“I can do it whenever.”

“Good. Bellaruna…”

“Y-yes. What should I do?”

Ludger threw an ampoule of red liquid at Bellaruna.

“Waaah!”

Bellaruna accepted it with both hands hastily.

“Th-this is?”

“It’s a drug that some black wizards made during their experiments. Analyze that.”

“Y-yes!”

“And just in case… Can you make a chemical agent that’s harmless to the body but irritates the skin? One that can be sprayed widely.”

“I-I think it’s possible.”

“I will order that as well.”

“Understood.”

Ludger’s gaze turned to Arpa.

He looked like his heart was already racing as he wondered what kind of order would Ludger give him.

“Arpa.”

“Yes!”

“You should stand by for now.”

“Eeeh. Am I not doing anything?”

“You don’t have to do anything right away. You’re going to enter in the time of emergency. Until then, stay still.”

“Tsk.”

“Pantos, the same goes for you.”

“I got it.”

Pantos, unlike Arpa, immediately nodded his head and accepted Ludger’s words.

“The remaining time is one week. Until then, let each of us do our best.”

* * *

Blaank~

Lynne didn’t eat and stared into the air with a blank gaze.

Elendil, who was watching the sight from beside her, called Lynne.

“Lynne?”

“…”

“Lynne!”

“Aht! Y-yes?!”

Looking at Lynne, who was so surprised and barely able to gather her senses, Elendil, who was eating with her on a mat, stared at Lynne with a worried gaze.

“Did anything happen recently? Are you perhaps hurt anywhere?”

“N-no. It’s not like that…”

“Come to think of it, you said you went to work on a part-time basis a while ago and got caught up in a terror attack, right? Did you maybe get hurt badly or anything back then?”

“No. I didn’t even get injured. Even then, Professor Ludger…”

“Professor Ludger?”

When that name came up, Elendil showed a curious reaction.

But Lynne, who had just spoken Ludger’s name, had once again fallen into her own world.

Elendil sighed and grabbed Lynne’s shoulders, shaking her lightly once.

“Heung. Aht?! Ah! So-sorry. I was spacing out again.”

“Did anything happen between you and Professor Ludger?”

“Pa-pardon? M-me?”

“Earlier, you said something about Professor Ludger. No way… Did that Professor mess with you?”

As Elendil’s expression gradually turned cold, Lynne desperately shook her hands.

“It’s not like that!”

“If that’s not it, then what?”

“It’s just that Professor Ludger saved me when I was in danger…”

“Ah. So that’s what happened? I’m saying nonsense, I see. But why did you space out so much?”

“It’s just, all of a sudden, a strange memory came to my mind.”

“A strange memory, you said?”

“I was just wondering if I’ve ever met Professor Ludger before…”

Elendil’s expression became cold at Lynne’s words.

“Isn’t it just what you felt because Professor Ludger saved you in a moment of crisis?”

“Oh, is that so?”

“Since someone of the opposite sex saved you directly in the moment of crisis, it’s possible for you to feel that way. I saw it in a recent thesis. Did they say it was a misattribution of arousal? Lynne, did you maybe fall in love with that professor?”

“Pardon?!”

Lynne’s face flushed red.

“Th-that’s not the case! Don’t make fun of me, Senior!”

“I’m glad you said no. If it really was true…”

“…If it was true?”

“I would prohibit you at all costs.”

“Pardon?”

Lynne felt completely surprised that Elendil said those words.

“Senior, do you hate Professor Ludger?”

“Rather than hate… hmm. It’s a bit vague. It’s true that I got annoyed at first because a new professor changed the terms and conditions of his class as he pleased, but since he has proven it with his ability, it’s not something I can comment on.”

“So?”

“But I can tell… The fact is that Professor Ludger Chelysie radiates a dangerous smell!”

“Dangerous… smell?”

What on earth was that supposed to mean?

“How should I explain this? Hmm. You must have known already, but I’m a princess, right?”

“Yes, you… were.”

“You were?”

“N-no! You are! Yes!”

Lynne answered hastily at Elendil, who asked back at her while narrowing her eyes.

When she thought of it, it was like that.

Elendil had often shown such unexpected appearances that they had undermined her dignity as a princess, thus Lynne had forgotten about it.

“Hmmm. Anyway, I’m a little sensitive about others. Should I say I’m quite sharp? Because of my status, I have no choice but to meet a lot of people. As a result, my senses developed in this direction. It’s like being able to roughly spot those with dangerous attributes.”

“Ah. I see.”

“But if I should say what the biggest problem is… I think it’s because of my older sister’s presence.”

“Older… sister?”

There was only one person who came to her mind when talking about Princess Elendil’s older sister.

Above Elendil, there was one older sister and one older brother.

And below her, there was one younger sister and one younger brother.

Basically, the imperial family would fight and compete with each other for the right of the throne.

Surprisingly, however, there wasn’t such a thing in the Exileon Empire.

—Because there was an absolute successor whom no one could refute.

Surprisingly, it wasn’t the second prince, but the first princess.

The second prince was also capable and had a high popularity, but even the second prince’s skills couldn’t be compared to the second princess.

The first princess was someone on a different level.

It was to the extent that people joked that she was no longer a human being.

Even though Lynne was someone who was ignorant in that field, she had also vaguely heard about the first princess, so she was able to guess how high her status was.

“But why the first princess?”

“I can tell if a person is dangerous or not when I look at people purely because of my older sister. Because my older sister is that kind of person.”

“Isn’t she your family?”

Since Lynne was an orphan who had no siblings, there was nothing she could particularly grasp about the existence of Elendil’s older sister that she spoke of.

However, from Elendil’s expression, it seemed that she didn’t like her older sister very much.

No. Rather, there was even a subtle fear in her eyes.

“Anyway. There’s one thing I realized when I saw Professor Ludger.”

“What do you mean by ‘realized…?’”

“That professor…”

Elendil von Exileon.

As the third princess of the Empire, she recalled the first time Ludger Chelysie had shown up in the classroom for their lesson.

The dangerous and cold energy that he’d radiated…

“He’s similar to my older sister.”